Fridge Fiasco and the Tangy BBQ Sauce

Nothing good happens when you step in a puddle of water

Yesterday our fridge sprung a leak.

I know you know how I felt when that discovery was made.   We seem to have particularly bad luck with our  home appliances too. I have been through countless toaster/broiler ovens, one stove, I am on my 3rd dishwasher… You get my drift.

So as I was removing items from the freezer, I was girding myself for the results of Ken’s inspection of the cause of the puddle and the speed with which the puddle replaced itself after my initial mop up was not a good sign.  Not at all.

I was removing things from the freezer and  telling myself it was  a good thing to happen because some things just needed to be tossed.  I tossed a few things that had clearly been lost at the bottom  of the pile of bags of frozen corn and peas for too long. I put a few things on the counter to defrost to use later and  I found something we could eat that day for lunch.  That took care of 3 or 4 items but I still had a long way to go.   On the bright side, at least I have a second fridge in the basement  where I could move a lot of the  food but that freezer was nearly full too, so I was forced to  continue to making  those tough decisions.

The fridge and freezer were still working but just about everything had to be removed so that we could maneuver the refrigerator out of the space it resides so that Ken could have look to figure out where the leak was coming from.  Finally when I had squeezed just about all jars and jugs and leftovers into the basement fridge Ken set about his examination at the back.    He is not a refrigerator repairman so I honestly held out no hope of his discovering what the problem was much less his  being capable of fixing the problem.

While he worked on the fridge I was thinking about how I could use the food  I had taken out to defrost and worrying about how long everything was going to be chaotic and having to go downstairs every time I  needed something cold.  Long story short I left the house for a couple of hours and when I came home Ken, with the help of Youtube, had not only identified the problem but had been to Lowe’s to purchase replacement parts and was well on his way to finishing the repair job!

First  completely unexpected outcome to what started out as a fiasco.

In the meantime it was very close to dinner time and earlier I had taken a package of pulled pork bbq out to defrost  so that we could eat that,  a surprise I found among all the frozen vegetables.  I soon discovered that the pulled pork bbq was simply the pork and did not have any sauce to go with  it.  None. No sauce  whatsoever.   Nobody eats pulled pork without bbq sauce smothered all over it!

I know BBQ sauce is not hard to make  but this late?   I  started to look at a few cookbooks to see what was needed.  Yes, I still use books.  I found several recipes but did not want to have to chop anything, use the food processor or go out to buy more ingredients.  I had to get creative and  the recipe below is the result.  I used just a few standard ingredients which I suspect you may stock  in your  cupboard too and  it took no more than 10 minutes.

Second completely unexpected outcome to what started as a fiasco and I did not even need Youtube!

In our house we  always have coleslaw with BBQ sandwiches and I happened to have a head of cabbage.  I make this so often that it was an easy decision to gather up those ingredients too.   In the simplest version of this coleslaw I need just 3 things- cabbage, Italian dressing, mayonnaise.   As I said I make it a lot so I will change the flavor by adding different herbs or an additional vegetable like carrots or green onion or shredded brussel sprouts.

Ken loves condiments so he enjoys the coleslaw on his BBQ sandwich.  I recommend giving this a try.  It makes for a slightly sloppier sandwich but the cabbage  adds a nice little crunch.  If you think it may be too sloppy for you than the slaw is the perfect side for any bbq.  It is a staple when I  serve my teriyaki chicken .   You will see it in that post as well.    Try them both  and tell me whether you prefer it on your sandwiches or next to your sandwich.